Too Much Fun on the Job
by Scrawlers
Summary: After the bombed courtroom is rebuilt, Apollo and Athena volunteer to help repaint it. Things don't quite go as planned. [Apollo/Athena]


**Disclaimer: **I do not own Ace Attorney or any of its properties.

**Notes: **This was written forever ago and posted to Tumblr. In an attempt to update this account with some things, I decided to post it here.

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><p><strong>Too Much Fun on the Job<strong>

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><p>Prior to that morning, Apollo would have thought the city would hire professionals to paint the newly reconstructed courtroom. Prior to that morning, Apollo would have said that he didn't have any experience in painting <em>anything<em>, much less courthouses, and that he had no interest in learning how. Prior to that morning, Apollo would have laughed if someone told him he would soon be on a two-man team repainting the room he recently sustained serious injuries in.

That, however, would be all _prior _to that morning. That morning, he arrived at the office to hear that Athena had volunteered him for painting duty with her, and to find that paint brushes, rollers, and buckets were shoved into his arms before he could so much as question the ridiculousness of what he'd just heard. It was a miracle that he'd managed to convince Mr. Wright and Athena to let him stop off at his apartment to at least get a change of clothes, first; as careful as he planned to be with the paint (because really, they were painting a _courthouse_, this was _serious_), he still didn't want to risk getting it on his suit.

Though if you asked _him_, he shouldn't have even been painting at all.

"This is going to take us forever," he said, staring at the large stretch of wall before him. He and Athena had already been at work for two hours, yet despite the expensive, extendable rollers they'd been given, they still weren't even a third of the way done. Frowning, he looked over his shoulder. Athena was across the room, her back to him, painting the section of the wall behind the defense's bench. She had to have heard him, with her ears, yet for all intents and purposes, she was off in her own little world. He sighed, and turned back to his wall. It was true that small talk could be annoying, but he had a feeling that painting duty wouldn't be half as bad as it was if they could at least _talk _during it. Truth be told, Apollo didn't know why Athena had volunteered both of them for the job if she didn't want to—

"What the—hey!"

The yelp left his mouth before he could stop it the second he felt something cold, wet, and somewhat sticky roll against the back of his neck. Athena let loose a peal of laughter as he spun around, and she pulled her long-range roller back toward her.

"You should have heard the crack in your voice!" she crowed. "I never knew you could squeak like that, Apollo! You'll give Junie a run for her money!"

"I was surprised!" he shot back. "How would you like it if you were minding your own business when someone decided to paint you? We're _supposed _to be painting the _walls_."

"Oh, relax. I was just having a bit of fun." Athena smacked her roller against the floor to lean on the handle like a janitor might a mop, smearing cream colored paint on the floor in the process. "This is going to take us forever anyway, isn't it?"

Apollo scowled at her, not sure if he felt more irritated at the paint that was drying on the back of his neck, the unrepentant attitude she had about it, or the fact that she _had _heard him before and chose to respond by running her roller against his skin. Before he could decide on what he was more irritated about, though, and respond accordingly, a different idea occurred to him. A slow grin started to form on his face, and in response, her smile grew wider.

"See?" she said. "It really is just a bit of—hey!"

"Turnabout is fair play," he said as she jumped back, cream colored paint from his roller speared all over the front of her shirt, a little on her face. "You paint me, I'll paint you."

Athena stared at him for a second, as if trying to decide whether he really had just painted her, before a devilish, bared tooth grin lit her face and she swept her roller up to hold it like a sword. "Is that a challenge, Señor Justice?"

Apollo spun his own roller up and around in a pose to match hers, and matched her grin with one of his own. "Come and get me, tiger."

He barely had time to block Athena's roller as it aimed for his forehead, her laughter filling the courtroom.

An hour and a half later and there still was hardly any paint on the walls, but there was plenty of it on the floor and all over both Athena and Apollo. Cream colored paint was caked in Athena's hair, smeared across Apollo's forehead, and had drenched their clothes during a brief period wherein they forsook their rollers to use the actual paint buckets instead. When their energy had finally left them they found themselves sitting on the floor in the middle of the courtroom, panting, their faces flushed but their smiles bright. This was, of course, until the courtroom doors opened and the sound of a whipcrack broke their cozy silence.

"_What have you foolish fools done_?!"

"Huh?" Apollo and Athena both looked toward the figure standing in the doorway—a woman older than either of them, with eyes like storm clouds and a whip in hand—but Athena was the only one who seemed able to find her voice. "Can we help you?"

"You can help me by explaining what foolish foolishness possessed you to defile the courtroom in this foolish manner!" The woman started striding toward them, wringing the leather of her whip between her hands, and after sharing an alarmed look both Athena and Apollo scrambled to their feet and started backing away. "Miles Edgeworth told me that foolish Phoenix Wright had responsible underlings that would be able to take care of the job. Yet I come to check your progress, and what do I find? I find foolish children foolishly flinging paint everywhere like foolish fools!" She lashed out with the whip, and it struck the floor an inch from Apollo's right foot. "Explain yourselves!"

"Athena started it," Apollo said, and Athena gave him a scandalized look before she punched him in the arm.

"Way to throw me under the bus, Apollo!" Athena turned to look at the glowering woman. "I only got him the first time. He's the one that continued it and challenged _me _to a battle."

"Two wrongs don't make a right," Apollo muttered, but before either of them could say anything more, the whip struck across their ankles, causing them both to stumble backwards and nearly topple onto the floor.

"I don't care which of you started it," the woman hissed. "What I care is that you scrub every inch of paint off the courtroom floors and finish the task you have been assigned." The woman snorted and folded her arms. "Seeing as how you cannot be trusted to do this on your own, I shall personally be overseeing the completion of this project. I trust you to complete it in a timely manner this time."

Though the woman's arms were folded, the coiled whip was still plainly visible in her hand. Athena and Apollo shared a look, and neither of them needed words or the stinging of their ankles where the whip had struck them to tell them what their next move was going to be.

"Yeah," Athena said, and she took one of Apollo's hands in her own. "We'll get right on that, don't worry! If there's one thing you can count on us for, it's finishing what we started, no matter what. Right, Apollo?"

"Definitely." Apollo smiled, though the woman didn't look convinced. If anything, as Athena guided him around the woman and in the general direction where they'd left the paint rollers, the woman's glare grew sharper and more suspicious. "You can count on us."

"Yep! So don't worry, we'll definitely finish painting this courtroom. Eventually, anyway." Now that they stood between the woman and the courtroom doors, Athena turned her walk into a run, causing Apollo to stumble as she dragged him behind her. "Bye!"

"Get back here!" the woman snarled, but though the whip cracked against the floor it missed Apollo's ankle by an inch. Together, Athena and Apollo bolted through the courtroom door, and though they had broken into laughter by the time they ran through the courthouse doors and out into the bright sunlight, they didn't stop running until they made it back to the agency.


End file.
